A Chaotic Christmas
by dbzespio
Summary: Leaf, on the author's whim, forces her friends to leave behind all of their Pokemon at her abode on Christmas Day. A bunch of crazy Pokemon all trapped inside a house together... What could possibly go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

A Chaotic Christmas…

Okay, I never thought I'd write a Christmas special. I always thought of them as slightly weird and a little bit cheesy, but…

I saw a Christmas special featuring Ash and co. being stupid enough to leave their Pokémon alone in a house during Christmas, (Like what could _possibly_ go wrong?) and I wondered to myself: what if Leaf was this stupid? That's right! I've decided to suspend Leaf's intelligence level for a while and force her to leave her and her friend's Pokémon alone to wreak havoc on a poor house… oh, yeah, and spread Christmas cheer too of course.

I decided to rate this T based on violence. It's not that bad though; I just didn't want to get any flack for this…

Oh, and before you decide to flame this, please be aware that my main intended audience for this piece consists of people who have actually read (at least a little bit of) another fanfic of mine, Azelf's Aura. If you haven't read any of it, please don't bug me because you're feeling confused. I really can't solve that problem for you. You'll have to do that yourself by reading the other fanfic. But of course, if you don't need tons of context given to you, then by all means, go ahead and read.

Enough talking! Let's go!

oOoOoOo

All across the world it was snowing beautifully. Dazzling flakes danced lightly across the evening sky… Children were all bundled up in giant snow gear so fat and bulky that they could hardly even move… but they were still laughing heartily and playing in the freshly fallen snow. Yes, the fireplaces were burning, the chestnuts were roasting on the open flames provided by your friendly Slugma… Oh, it was such a wonderful day.

But it wasn't snowing at Leaf's abode. Of course not! For God's sake, it's in the middle of the tropics! So, that first statement there was a contradiction, totally inaccurate. But that's relatively irrelevant…

"Bye everyone!" Leaf called out cheerfully, "Be good while we're gone!"

Knuckles' ears stiffened in shock. He crawled out from beneath Leaf's bed and stared, his horror rising by the second.

"Uh… why are we leaving again?" Riley asked with slight confusion. "And why are we leaving every last one of our Pokémon behind? I mean, what if we need to use Fly or Surf? And what if we run into someone who wants to battle? Or a random crook?"

"How many times do I have to tell you the plot demands it!" Blathers, Leaf's insane Chatot, screeched.

Riley blinked. "Plot? What does he mean by that?"

"Oh, who cares?" Leaf snapped, annoyed. "He's insane! He _never _makes any sense!"

"But…!" Toby made to protest, but Leaf shoved him out the door before he could say anything.

"Now let's go!" she insisted and made to drag Riley out the door, but she was suddenly grabbed by Knuckles, who clung desperately to one of her ankles, begging for her to stay.

"Oh, stop that!" Leaf tried to shake her Lucario off but failed miserably. So she placed her right foot on his forehead and attempted to pry herself free.

"Leaf!" Riley cried out. "Instead of being violent, why don't you _talk_ to Knuckles about this? Perhaps you could _ask_ him why he doesn't want you to leave?"

But Leaf's intelligence level was suspended, and so she could not think rationally about the situation. Thus, she promptly told Riley to shut his mouth, and then she just continued to be violent and unreasonable with the poor Pokémon. Being a bit on the nerdy side, she wasn't exactly a very strong person, so thankfully, no real damage was inflicted on anyone.

"Thank goodness!" Blathers declared.

Annoyed with the slowness of everything, Vegeta the Blastoise sprayed Knuckles squarely with his mighty water cannon. This resulted in the Lucario being blasted away from his Trainer, and Leaf could finally escape. "Bye everyone!" she exclaimed quickly and yanked Riley out the door before slamming it shut.

"Noooo…" Knuckles moaned weakly, lying on the floor in utter defeat. Now he was trapped with the other Pokémon!

"Oh calm down; we're not that bad, you know!" Espio the Espeon pointed out, the swishing of her tail revealing her indigence. But she instantly regretted this statement, for Toby's Staraptor chose this moment to begin his attempts at consuming the Christmas tree. After taking a hearty bite, he gagged, choking on the various pine needles scratching his throat.

"Idiot!" Riley's Ursaring shouted and began to perform the Heimlich maneuver in an effort to save the bird's life. He succeeded, and Staraptor collapsed to the floor from the exhaustion that set in after coughing so hard.

"Well, there's one near-death experience in less than five minutes." Riley's Metagross remarked.

After a few seconds, Staraptor recovered from his exhaustion. He sat up, grinned stupidly at the Christmas tree, and lunged to go back for more.

"What is _wrong _with you?" Ursaring cried, seizing the hunger-crazed bird by the wing. "You know what? I think I've got the perfect solution to bring you back to your senses…!"

"Does it involve dinner?" Staraptor asked eagerly.

"No," Ursaring smiled crookedly. "but you _could _say it involves a nice, cool drink…"

"Well, I am kind of thirsty…" Staraptor mused, allowing himself to be dragged away by the overgrown bear Pokémon. "Are you maybe thinking of eggnog?"

"No!" Ursaring roughly shoved the bird into the shower, yanked the water onto the coldest setting on full blast, and slammed the shower door shut, all before the Staraptor could even blink.

The giant bird Pokémon screamed in pure agony. The water was _freezing cold_!

"I hate to do this to a fellow Pokémon…" Ursaring began, resting his paw on the shower door, his face transformed by a smile that suggested otherwise. He still couldn't forget the day Staraptor had tried to eat his buddy, Pinsir. "but hey, this is the best way to knock some sense into ya. I know it's unpleasant, but at least it isn't painful. Like last time was."

Meanwhile, all of the other Pokémon froze in place upon hearing the atrociously loud screams coming from the bathroom. "Well," Metagross declared. "I'd say things are going quite well."

Deeming it relatively harmless, many of the Pokémon shrugged and returned to their own business. Maybe Ursaring's "shock treatment" might work after all. Everyone was tired of trying to not get eaten by the overgrown bird type anyway, particularly the smaller Pokémon. Maybe now they might be able to live without fear of being eaten. But Espio, for her part, looked around anxiously. She knew how crazy many of these Pokémon were, and as things were now…

The purple cat raced over to Riley's Absol, one of her closest friends. "Absol! Without any of our Trainers here, this is all going to get out of hand! Think about it! Every time all of the Pokémon are summoned out of their Pokéballs at once, chaos ensues! And without any Trainers to stop anybody…"

"We're all doomed." Absol finished, her sickle tingling with the knowledge of a Christmas disaster. "What can we do?"

"Well, I'm not sure…" Espio looked thoughtful. "But perhaps we could call a meeting… of all of the _sane _Pokémon here, and from there, we could all put our heads together and think of something."

"But who among us is sane? Besides us two?"

The two Pokémon looked thoughtful for exactly two seconds. "Rukario!" they exclaimed in unison.

oOoOoOo

Staring at the flickering flame of the Christmas candle on the floor before him, Rukario was deeply focused on its subtle movements. He had not broken out of his meditative state throughout all of these happenings. He hadn't even realized the Trainers had left. Indeed, his body had entered a state of deep calm, induced by the soft flame. He had found true inner peace.

"Ha! HA! Can't catch me!" Toby's Pikachu screamed, running throughout the living room. When she reached Rukario's candle, she leapt over it. The wind produced by her leap caused the tiny flame to go out completely.

Inner peace destroyed, Rukario leapt to his feet. "How _dare _you! Now I have to beg that Torchic to light me a new one! And not to mention, I'll have to re-convince Riley to let me use fire again!"

"Riley's not even here!" Pikachu called back with a laugh.

"Why you-!" Rukario clenched his paw into a fist. Kids these days were such ingrates!

Toby's Mudkip laughed stupidly, running as fast as his tiny little legs would take him. But of course, his laughing caused him to not look carefully at where he's going, and so the little Mudkip tripped over Rukario's now-unlit candle. His feet got tangled up in the candle, so both Mudkip and candle rolled away until they both crashed into the wall. "…Oops."

"You clumsy fool!" Rukario roared, running over to inspect his precious candle. "You _broke_ it!"

Mudkip rolled back onto his feet, and his eyes widened at the sight of the angry Lucario towering over him. The little mudfish gulped.

"What were you even running around for anyway?" Rukario demanded to know.

Over on the other side of the room, Pikachu stopped running to watch the scene. Mudkip was going to get it now…

"Mud… Kip…! Mud… Kip…!" Mudkip put on his cutest face and attempted the same lines that had somehow miraculously won over everyone (except Vegeta) who had seen it before with its inherent, repetitive charm. Surely it would work on Rukario too.

Rukario watched the Mudkip repeat itself over and over again. The constant repetition lulled the Lucario into a calmer state. Perhaps he had been too harsh with the Mudkip. Indeed, it was best to see things from a rational and clear standpoint, instead of being clouded by emotions, particularly the more negative standpoint of wrath. Surely, he could make do with this broken candle. Riley would get cross with him for breaking it, but he could always point the finger at the Mudkip later.

Rukario stepped aside and pointed to his left. "Carry on."

"Yay!" Mudkip had thought for certain that he would get his face smashed in by the once-angry monster. But of course, his charm had once again saved him. He ran off to chase Pikachu again.

"No running!" Rukario said sharply. Mudkip quickly slowed down.

Contented, Rukario returned to his place on the floor and set the broken candle before him. It probably wouldn't be safe to light it anymore, so now what? As he sat there pondering, he found himself being drawn into another meditative state. But how could this happen? He was merely staring at a broken candle. Perhaps… it was because this was a Christmas candle. Perhaps the Christmas spirit emanating from the candle was pervading his own spirit, providing him with the warm and sentimental feelings of Christmas memories…

As he sat there reminiscing of the various Christmases he had spent with Riley, and that especially lovely one he had spent with his mate, Espio and Absol ran up to him with urgent looks on their faces. "Rukario! Rukario! We need your help!"

"Help with what?" the Lucario looked irritated.

"We're calling together a meeting. You see, our Trainers are gone, so that means there is the likely possibility that things will get out of control." Espio explained quickly. "We need to band together to form a plan of action against the madness."

"Alright. You do that."

"No! Listen to me! We need _your _help as well!"

"Listen." Rukario touched his temples with his paws. "I refuse to take part in any tomfoolery. This includes your little coalition."

"We're _not _being foolish!" Espio protested. "Absol has predicted that there _will _be a Christmas disaster. _And today _is Christmas! And our Trainers aren't here to direct us against this possible destruction!"

"It's true." Absol nodded.

"When I _see_ destruction, I'll gladly step in to help end it. As it is now, I don't see there's any reason to get all worked up. There is nothing happening here, apart from the usual ruckus and racket."

"But didn't it ever occur to you that this 'ruckus and racket' might be what _causes _the Christmas disaster?"

Rukario stared at the Espeon with disbelief. "A likely story." He said finally, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Espio scowled. "You're no help at all!" she whirled around, stalking off with her tail swishing behind her angrily. Absol sent the Lucario one last hurt look before following after her.

Rukario rolled his eyes at the melodrama and attempted to re-focus his thoughts on his Christmas memories.

"Stop chasing me Blathers!" Popuri, Leaf's Swablu, whined. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"But Popuri!" Blathers called out dramatically, "I must _express_ my upmost feelings for you!"

Rukario clutched his head. "There's no peace or quiet anymore! How can I meditate under these conditions?"

oOoOoOo

Notes: And so, here is the first chapter! I had no idea how many chapters I've going to have, or even whether I'll finish this before Christmas or not. (Doubtful. Since I started this a long while ago and am only this far along. XD)

But hey, it's just something random. A little side story to Azelf's Aura if you will. I know how much you readers like these "PokéPal" (or should I call them Pokécentric?) chapters. And hopefully, any new readers (who weren't scared off by my earlier warnings) aren't too confused.

I hope you like it.


	2. Chapter 2

Yeah, it's after Christmas now, and I'm only on chapter two… XP

But hey, Christmas joy is supposed to last forever you know! Silly things such as dates and times are irrelevant when you're talking about the beauty of the holidays… and the oddness of Pokémon.

oOoOoOo

"Popuri," Blathers crooned. "doesn't the snow look beautiful?"

Popuri, Leaf's little Swablu, turned to face the window. She and Blathers were currently perched on the windowsill in the kitchen, and she was doing her best to hold a somewhat intelligent conversation with the colorful bird. "Um…" she stared blankly outside, at the palm trees that stood just beside the outdoor pool. "Blathers… you _do _realize it _doesn't_ snow here? _Ever?_"

"Oh, of course it does, mah boi!"

The little cotton bird glared at him indignantly.

"Oops!" Blathers suppressed a random hiccup. "I meant to say, mah gurl! Gurrrrrl!"

"Blathers." Popuri said shortly. "Shut up."

"Don't! Be that way!" Blathers wagged a wing in her face. "Here I am, just trying to be a gentlebird, and you go off on me!"

"Yeah, it's all me." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I was talking about the snow, which _clearly _exists, because I wanted to set up a positive environment! For providing the proper mood for what I _really _wanted to tell you…!"

"And what did you _really _want to tell me?" Popuri narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "That the sky is red! That the ocean is yellow! That you're wearing green socks today!"

"No, I can't say it yet!" Blathers shrieked wildly (after quickly checking to see if he truly was wearing socks.) "I'm _not ready _for this! I _forgot_ my lines! I _can't remember_ if I studied for this exam! My homework got _eaten_ by Vegeta! I tried to recover it, but it was covered in Blastoise drool! _Nothing _is more gross than that! It's even worse than Butterfree in the springtime! AAAH! SAVE ME POPURI! SAVE ME FROM ALL OF THE HORRORS SURROUNDING ME!"

Popuri's wing solidified into steel. She then slammed the steel-hardened wing against Blathers' face, effectively using Steel Wing to knock him out of his stupor.

"Thanks, my fair lady!" Blathers sang out cheerfully, despite getting hit across the face. "Now what was I saying? Ah yes, my deepest secret… Ah, well, it's like this…" he briefly glanced at the windowpane again before turning to her and taking her cottony wing in his. "I… less than three… you…"

Popuri's brow furrowed in confusion. "Less than three? Three what? What are you talking about?"

"You!" Blathers exclaimed, grabbing both of her wings and staring into her eyes intently. "I less than three you, Popuri! And no one else!"

"I don't understand what you mean…" Popuri said cautiously, pulling out of his grasp and slowly backing away.

"Less than three!" Blathers yelled. "What's not to understand about that? It's common Internet speak!"

"The Internet?" Popuri repeated. She had heard Leaf speak of it before, but she had no idea what it was. "Do you like the Internet, Blathers?"

"YUS! I LUV THE INTERNET!"

"Then I'm afraid of it!" Popuri declared and made to fly away.

"Don't run from the Internet, Popuri! It could be detrimental! Devastating even! It does more hurt than harm, ya know!" Blathers called out, chasing her into the living room.

"Stop chasing me, Blathers!" Popuri shrieked. "Why can't you just leave me alone!"

"But Popuri!" he called out dramatically. "I must _express _these feelings that I've held so dearly!"

Meanwhile, that grumpy dude, Rukario, was sitting on the floor grumbling. Blathers perked up at the noise. It actually sounded pretty hilarious. So, of course, he _had_ to mimic it. "Narraarggh! Rarargh! Grr! Narrrgh! RRgh! Harrr!"

"Insolent bird!" Rukario leapt to his feet and roared. "How dare you mock me!"

"Insolent bird!" Blathers repeated, mimicking the Lucario's exact tone and pitch perfectly. The bird then decided to abandon his attempts at chasing Popuri, in favor of taunting Rukario, someone who was much more responsive and attentive to his teasing. "How dare you mock me!"

Rukario snarled in rage. "You've asked for it now! Take this, you irritating little freak!" And with that, he hurled several Aura Spheres his way. Miraculously, the Chatot dodged every single one of them, despite the fact that Aura Sphere is never supposed to miss its target… Hmm…

So instead, the Aura Spheres slammed into the walls, making several ugly gash marks on them. One even hit the old clock hanging on the wall.

"I SENSE ERROR! COMPUTE CODE THREE FIVE NINE! ENTERING ERROR! Beep! Fizzle! MELTDOWN IMMENENT!" The clock chirped. They just don't make clocks how they used to…

"Geez, Rukario, you busted the clock!" Blathers rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"I ought to 'bust' your voice box!" More Aura Spheres were sent his way.

But Blathers just dodged them again, and the walls suffered more damage. One very nearly hit him, but Blathers unleashed the inner power of the Mattress inside of him and dramatically dodged it in slow motion. "Whoa." Blathers laughed, impressed. "_Wild_ Lucario!"

Rukario stomped his foot onto the ground like an angry child. "You irritating _twit_! You're lucky I don't _kill _you where you stand!"

"I'm not standing, I'm flying!" Blathers sang out cheerfully. Being politically correct was such great fun, really.

Rukario roared again, and this time, leapt into the air to perform Blaze Kick on the bird's face.

Blathers just barely avoided the attack, and Rukario, being unable to stop his momentum, fell onto Leaf's bed, very nearly catching it on fire in the process.

"Remember, Rukario! Only _you _can prevent forest fires!" Blathers said cheekily. "And don't forget! Engaging in flammable activity can result in fire and slash or personal injury. Be safe, not stupid!"

"Hmm… who would've thought Blathers would be the voice of reason…" Toby's Grovyle mused from his place on the floor. He had been sitting there watching the whole ordeal, chewing passively on a blade of grass in his mouth. He couldn't help but vaguely wonder why Espio and Absol had chosen Rukario as the 'most sane Pokémon in the house.' Clearly, the guy was _in_sane and not to mention, prone to childish temper tantrums. Grovyle sighed, selecting a new blade of grass from his wrist to chew on next. It was only too bad Espio didn't think _he _was sane…

"_Jet_ the Hawk with boughs of _Molly_! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!" Blathers sang, badly out of tune, while Rukario continued his attempts at assaulting him with Aura Spheres.

"_Troll_ the ancient, Yuletide Marill! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!

"_Tis_ the season to LOL! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!

"Now we Dawn our May apparel! Gwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!

"_Clearly_ Rukario is out of PP! Fwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-HA!"

But Blathers' little song was wrong. Rukario still had one move left, and he fired that last Sphere in the direction of the insane Chatot. However, his attack missed and managed to graze Salamence's nose instead. This proved to be disastrous, since Salamence sneezed from this light contact. And his sneeze was flammable.

Both Blathers and Rukario froze in horror when they became aware that the fire from Salamence's sneeze had hit the Christmas tree. And it was now on fire.

"Oh noez!" Salamence ran around in circles due to panic. "Somebody use a Water type move! Quick! Quick! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! AAAH!"

Grovyle re-opened his eyes and nearly choked on the blade of grass in his mouth at the sight of the now-flaming Christmas centerpiece. Even Knuckles bothered to look up, sufficiently distracted from his pathetic moping.

"Vegeta! Wake up!" Grovyle screamed, rapping on the Blastoise's shell hurriedly.

"What? What is it?" Vegeta slurred, slightly groggy from being disturbed from his nap. But he quickly got over it when he took notice of the flaming inferno that was now the Christmas tree. The water type quickly and carefully tamed the flames with his water cannons. He was careful to provide a steady and even flow to his water stream, in his best effort to not tear apart the poor tree. Eventually, the fire went out, but all that remained was a charred and burnt up tree remnant.

"Just lovely!" Vegeta boomed sarcastically. "Leaf and the others will be _thrilled _to come home to this mess! Just who started the fire anyway?"

"Yo mama?" Blathers suggested before whistling innocently.

"I did it! I'm _sorry_!" Salamence wailed, beside himself with guilt and sadness. "I sneezed, and I _ruined_ Christmas! I'm such a stupid klutz! And I couldn't be more sorry!" He buried his face in the carpet as he continued to sob and cry over it.

Clearly not expecting this sort of confession, Vegeta stood there and blinked, completely speechless.

"It's not Salamence's fault!" Metagross objected.

"You saw it happen?" Grovyle asked with surprise. The steel type had been standing there passively for a while now, and it seemed to him that Metagross had just decided to take a nap there with his eyes open.

"Yes, I saw the whole thing…" Metagross said wisely. "But spreading blame goes against the Christmas spirit, so I refuseto reveal _any_ knowledge regarding this incident."

"Like Heatran it is!" Grovyle exclaimed. "If you know something, you'd_ better_ tell us! The People _deserve _the right to know! If anything, _keeping secrets _is against the spirit of Christmas!"

"Yeah!" Vegeta agreed enthusiastically. "Wait… what?"

"_I _did it!" Rukario snarled, startling everyone.

"…What? But how did you…? What? Why?" Vegeta sputtered.

"Ah! That's right!" Grovyle exclaimed. "Blathers and Rukario were roughhousing, and I bet one of Rukario's attacks set off the fire!"

"Are you sure _you_ did this?" Vegeta asked Rukario, his brow raised.

"Are you _challenging _me, Vegeta?" Rukario cried.

"Maybe I am… hard to tell." the Blastoise smirked.

Unable to control his rage, Rukario charged for the water type with his metallic claws glowing. But before he could reach him, Vegeta quickly curled up into his shell. Even though he wasn't doling out much damage, Rukario continued to savagely beat on the Blastoise's shell anyway.

"Mudkip! Get out here quick! We need your help!" Metagross called out.

Thankfully for everyone, Mudkip skipped into the room and began to chant his name over and over again to Rukario, effectively calming him down.

"I apologize…" Rukario said sincerely, once his sanity was restored. "I've been neglecting my meditations as of late, and it must be affecting my psyche. I promise to be more mindful in the future… But I must admit, never have I had such trouble controlling my temper…"

"Yeah, Blathers can do that to ya…" Vegeta agreed with a sigh. "Speaking of which, where did he go anyway?"

"I appollowgiss!" Blathers screamed, randomly popping out of Vegeta's left water cannon. "I lave bin neglacktin mi medikatoins az oof lat, n ti moost bee affeckin mi psychik. I pormiz 2 bee moar carfull in da fuutur… Butt i moost admet, nevur lave I lad sooch troobull controllin mi timpur…"

Rukario snarled and unsheathed his claws, his rage born anew."So you think you can troll _me_, do you?"

Vegeta sighed and went over to open the door. "Let 'em duke it out outside…"

Soon enough, through the combined efforts of Grovyle, Metagross, Salamence, and Vegeta, Rukario and Blathers' battle made its way outside, where hopefully, they might not destroy everything in sight. Hopefully.

oOoOoOo

"Here… we should probably go outside." Ki suggested, gathering up his friend, Torchic, in his arms.

"Why?" Torchic asked curiously.

"Toby and the other Trainers have left, so I'm certain things are going to get pretty loud and crazy in here…"

"I thought I heard screaming earlier…"the Fire type recalled. "Is something bad going on?"

"Of course not." The Lucario shook his head. "Never mind that screaming you heard earlier… It wasn't anything drastic. It's just that everyone around here likes to roughhouse a bit. Don't worry about it. We're just going to relax outside for a bit to get away from it all. Does that sound good to you?"

The Torchic nodded, and the two carefully made their way to the front door. Upon reaching the outdoors, Ki lowered his friend to the ground. Once Torchic's feet touched the ground, she scampered straight to the pool and stared curiously into the water.

"Hey! I can see my face down there!" she exclaimed. "And yours too!" she cried when her friend approached.

Ki gazed in the general direction of the water but said nothing.

"Wow…"she faltered, staring at her features intently. "My face looks… quite a bit… different from the last time I saw my reflection…"

"How so?"

"I've got a lot more scars than I thought…" she paused, slightly revolted. "I look pretty ugly, actually."

"The only scars I see are your doubts." Ki declared suddenly.

Torchic looked up in surprise. She hadn't even realized... Truly, Ki's vision was so much different from her own. And in some ways, so much better…

The Lucario smiled gently. "Should we sit down somewhere?"

"Y-yeah." She followed him over to a spot in the shade.

Ki leaned back against the trunk of a palm tree and remained silent, content to sit back and enjoy the fresh air. Torchic found herself staring at him, time and time again…

Even at the times when he concentrated hard on a particular Aura, she noticed his receptors always remained as they were, as if he were perpetually at rest. She knew that when others of his species focused, their receptors sprang to life and floated on end. He, on the other hand, was so accustomed to using his Aura sight that his black receptors barely twitched anymore, let alone stood on end. For this reason, she never really knew whether he was concentrated on anything or if he was truly at rest. She had a feeling that his Aura vision was sharper than that of Knuckles and Rukario, but in a way, it had to be. It was the only vision he had.

She often wondered if Ki's eyes hurt him still. Sometimes, when she practiced her Fire type moves, she would notice him cringing. She hadn't witnessed the incident that caused him to lose his eyesight, and she was hesitant to bring it up in conversation. Ki never questioned her about her own troubles with her previous Trainer, and she felt a certain obligation to do the same for him.

"Ki! We need your help!"

Torchic broke out of her thoughts to see Espio and Absol rushing over to them.

"What is it?" Ki sat up straight, his receptors twitching ever so slightly.

"Absol here has sensed a disaster!" Espio exclaimed.

"I hope it isn't serious…"

"No, it's not earth-shattering, but it will cause a lot of heart-ache." Absol explained.

"We need to form a plan of action against it," Espio continued, "so the two of us are calling together all of the _sane _Pokémon here to brainstorm a plan. Both of you are invited, of course."

"Hopefully you're willing to come and help?" Absol asked.

"Of course." Ki nodded. "I'll be glad to help."

"Me too!" Torchic chimed in.

"Great! Thank you!" Espio looked relieved. "We've been having a little trouble recruiting Pokémon here, and since there really are so few of us who are remotely sane, we need everyone we can get…"

"Well, we're glad to help. We can't have a disaster on Christmas now, can we?" Ki said with a small smile. "We'll give it our all, right Torchic?"

"You bet." She smiled.


End file.
